For The Birds - A Black Stenciled Bird Coffee Table

You'd think I would be outside enjoying the weather but it took a turn the last couple of days and so I've been indoors on a mission to declutter our basement guest room a.k.a. furniture holding zone. The place looks like a salvage yard, one of the challenges of not having a garage.

If anyone asked if they could stay with us right now, I'd have a full-blown panic attack. So my rule, no more furniture allowed in this house until I've both finished the ones in the queue AND given RE-makeovers to the ones that haven't sold.

Like this arched cross leg coffee table that I completely forgot I had. I thought the original aqua and white Moroccan makeover was very pretty but obviously, potential buyers didn't agree. So today I'm sharing how this table went for the birds just in time for Spring and transformed into a Black Stenciled Bird Coffee Table, but I didn't use a stencil.

Black Stenciled Bird Coffee Table

Sometimes you have to tweak before they speak!

Makeover Number One

But sold it didn't and the inspiration for this second makeover was an almost identical table I did a few years ago. My black Old World Map Coffee Table sold before I had a chance to list it and so I'm hoping the same might happen with this one.

Not wanting to replicate that makeover, instead of decoupaging the top with map paper, I stenciled it instead.

Disclosure: I've included a Materials List towards the bottom of this post. It contains affiliate links for your convenience so you can see what products I used or recommend for this furniture makeover. What that means is that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a small portion of any sales at no additional cost to you, which supports the costs of running this site. See my full disclosure policy.

Makeover Number Two - Painting the table

The first thing I did was sand the stencil on the top to get rid of any raised bits. Next, I primed the top only to conceal the lattice stencil. The entire table was painted with two coats of Raven FAT chalk paint.

You can see in the photo below that after just one coat I was getting good coverage over the white.

Stenciling the table with plastic overlays

I used plastic overlays to stencil the top of the table. I've had these overlays for so long that I can't remember where I bought them, may have been the dollar store. I just remember thinking the birds on the branches were so cute.

I pounced and swirled the color Chalked White with my stencil brush. The overlays fit snug as a bug vertically across the table but horizontally they overlapped.

I tried flipping the overlay over to stencil a mirror image but the pattern repeat didn't line up well. If I lined the pattern up to the previous pattern repeat, it didn't cover the rest of the top.

Instead, I lined the overlay along the opposite end of the top to repeat the 1-inch border. The pattern repeat in the center wasn't perfect but doable with some touch-ups later. You can see in the photo below that I didn't stencil over the same area twice.

With a script liner art brush and black paint, I hand painted branches to line up with the others as well as the leaf pattern. It worked like a charm!

With the same script liner art brush, I painted the ridge along the base of the skirt white for added interest.

Protecting the paint

Once the stencil dried overnight, I applied two coats of Dixie Belle Satin Clear Coat over the top only. The rest of the table was waxed with Daddy Van's Shadow Black Wax.

Unfortunately, I couldn't distress the table because of the aqua and white layers underneath.

I quite liked the original Moroccan vibe I had going on with this table but I think the second bird stencil makeover is cute too, especially for Spring. I'm keeping my finger's crossed that this coffee table sells as fast as the other black painted map table.

As promised here is the materials list for the products I used or recommend for this makeover.

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